The automobile and motor cycle markets are always looking for ways to “doll up” their vehicles. Particular attention is paid to attractive ways of illuminating features of the vehicle, especially the license plates. The first concern is that the numbers on the plate must “stand out” They must be clearly legible in the darkest of conditions.
An example of this effort is U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,798 issued Aug. 10, 1999 to Roller. Roller disclosed a lamp assembly for illumination of a vehicle license plate that includes a substrate, a plurality of emitting diodes mounted on the substrate, and a lens for directing the light.
Light from the light emitting diodes onto the license plate. A housing encases the substrate and the lens. An attachment member fixedly secures the housing to a vehicle displaying the license plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,080 issued Dec. 23, 1997 to Okuda discloses a vehicular lamp comprising a lamp body defining a lamp chamber, and a light source disposed in the lamp body. An air circulation hole is formed in a back plate of the lamp body for producing an air communication channel between the lamp chamber and the air outside the lamp arranged for preventing water from leaking into the lamp chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,772 to Pettyjohn discloses a rectangular license plate holder for a vehicle with side columns holding printed circuit boards internally. A light, a transformer and chip are mounted in the side columns. The strength of signals received by the lights is dependent on the output of the vehicles stereo system to which the circuit boards are connected. Thus the license plate frame displays an unlimited variation of colored patterns in which various numbers of LEDs are illuminated in accordance with the strength of the outputs of the stereo system.
As these examples indicate, the market is always looking for novel attractive flashy ways to display a license number on a vehicle.